Lighting

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New Zealand - Eastgate Christian Centre in Auckland recently upgraded its audio system, selecting a combined dLive digital mixing and ME personal monitor system from Allen & Heath to manage FOH and monitor audio requirements.

"We needed a greater auxiliary count and a more flexible workflow than the existing FOH mixer could provide, plus the monitor system was no longer reliable, so the church decided to replace both systems with a higher capacity system that can easily handle the most demanding services," explains Matt Bayly, technical arts director at Eastgate.

After researching and seeking advice from AV consultants, the church enrolled its team of volunteers to test out different mixers before a purchasing decision was made.

"It was a unanimous decision - everyone preferred dLive as it had a superior work-flow, was more user friendly and it sounded incredible," say

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UK - The Hyundai Mercury Prize, took place at London's Eventim Apollo Hammersmith and was won by Skepta, who beat new albums by a variety of artists including Radiohead, David Bowie, Anohni, and The 1975.

The awards event was produced by Lipfriend Rodd International. Producer David Davies, and technical director, Robert Lipfriend contracted PRG XL Video to supply rigging, and lighting for the show which was filmed and broadcast by BBC Music.

The lighting design for the show was created by award-winning designer, Nigel Catmur. PRG XL Video's account director, Chris Walker worked with a rigging brief which needed to accommodate both lighting and video elements, all of which moved during the show. Chris explains, "We worked with the design from Nigel Catmur, which included lighting, LED screens, and masking trusses.

"Our rigging team, led by head rigger, Chris 'Karrit' Ha

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UK - Of the many Houses of Worship visited by AV installation company, Old Barn Audio (OBA), the Syrian Orthodox Church in East Acton will rank as one of the more unusual.

Fitted out with Martin Audio's radical CDD (Coaxial Differential Dispersion) sound reinforcement in time for its consecration in November, the church is described as "an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world". Due to the war in Syria, the community of Syriac Orthodox Christians in Britain has grown considerably.

The Church employs the oldest surviving liturgy in Christianity, the Liturgy of St. James the Apostle, and uses Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic spoken by Jesus Christ and his Apostles, as its official and liturgical language.

OBA was one of several companies asked to tender, and was awarded the contract largely as a re

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Denmark - The MCH (Messe Center Herning) group is one of Scandinavia's largest congress centres, based in the city of Herning, mid Jutland, with large buildings and arenas for hosting conferences, sports events and rock concerts.

The group has just installed a new d&b audiotechnik loudspeaker system into its theatre in Herning town centre, which will be used for both conferences and live music events.

The decision to select d&b was made by a team of in-house and external professionals after presentations and listening tests. MCH's head of sound, Tommas Hviid Kristensen, commented, "We wanted a premium brand system that would be rider friendly for both in-house and visiting engineers, so we asked a number of companies to tender. Each company set up a mono hang of their system so that we could hear them in the theatre and then decide which we preferred."

Lars Baun Freder

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Croatia - Avolites control consoles and Ai media servers powered beat-perfect visuals across Outlook and Dimensions, two of Croatia's leading dance music festivals, seamlessly merging lighting and video to immerse and enthral the crowds of revellers.

The sister festivals are held every year in Croatia's medieval town of Pula in the ruins of the town's 150-year-old Fort, 'Punto Christo'. Providing the lighting and video aspects for both Outlook and Dimensions was UK lighting, rigging and production expert Fineline Lighting, which has been involved in the festivals since 2012.

"This year we looked after The Void, Mungo's Arena, The Stables, Noah's Ballroom, The Moat, The Garden and the main stage," says Fineline Lighting's managing director Rob Sangwell. "The two festivals celebrate EDM and soundsystem culture, so lighting and visuals are always high on the agenda."

Sang

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Cambodia - Johnny Strife, head of lighting and lighting designer at PNN TV in Cambodia has been announced as the lucky winner of Zero 88's popular In Control competition and he's chosen a Zero 88 FLX console as his prize.

Johnny is absolutely delighted. He could hardly believe it when he opened his FB page and found Zero 88's congratulations message, "I was so excited. I will use the new console to control many more performances," he declared.

The competition was extremely well received and open to anyone working with, using or owning a Zero 88 lighting control product - desks or dimmers - or even anyone even thinking about it!

Entrants snapped a photo of their Zero 88 product 'in control' in a real lighting environment and submitted this together with a short caption to the Zero 88 team via social media or Email. The entries were examined closely by a panel of experts

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New Zealand - Auckland Live is a busy umbrella organisation running all the live performance venues in New Zealand's largest performing arts and convention centre complex right in the heart of the city.

Their existing stock of Robe moving lights is now boosted with the addition of 44 new LED moving lights - 12 x DL4S Profiles and 32 x LEDWash 800s.

Head of lighting Malcolm Ibel has been using Robe moving lights increasingly in his work in recent years, and Auckland Live initially invested in the MMX Series with the purchase of 12 x MMX Spots and 12 x MMX WashBeams.

Having been extremely happy with the performance of these and what they brought to lighting the various venues and shows, they had a solid basis for the decision to go with the latest purchase.

The DL4S Profile was selected for its finesse and elegance as a theatrical luminaire - compact size, light weig

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Switzerland - Now equipped with Nexo's Geo M6 compact line array, the Rosey Concert Hall at Institut Le Rosey near Lausanne is already being acknowledged as one of the finest concert halls in Switzerland.

This 900-seat venue sits at the heart of the Paul and Henri Carnal Hall, a visionary building by architect Bernard Tschumi that has recently been added to the campus of the exclusive Rosey boarding school in Rolle, Switzerland. The auditorium, designed by Arup Acoustics, is dedicated to classical music, welcoming world-famous orchestras such as the St Petersburg Philharmonic. With the addition of a Nexo sound reinforcement system, it is also able to stage concerts, musicals, operas, lectures and film shows, as well as a huge range of other events to nourish students' cultural appetites.

ZAP Audiowas invited to design a PA system for this elegant hall. ZAP director Fr&eacu

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UK - Production Park has announced the acquisition of consulting firm, AspectUnlimited and the integration of their media design workflow consultancy into the Production Park group of companies.

The acquisition will merge AspectUnlimited's specialties in previsualization, technical and production workflow consulting for 3d media servers and lighting systems, with the electronics and automation skill sets of Brilliant Automation to create a new renamed group brand - Brilliant Technologies.

Lee Brooks, managing director of Production Park, remarks, "Future productions will require an ever increasing technical integration of scenic, automation and visual technologies. Shannon and the team will be key to developing our capabilities in these areas."

Director of AspectUnlimited, Shannon Harvey will take on a new role as the director of technology for the Production Park grou

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UK - Adding a little neon radiance to edge the politically charged wit of comedian Matt Forde, illumination specialists, LED Creative has been working with scenic designer James Dillon to help create the look for Unspun.

Filmed in front of a live audience at Elstree Studios with lighting director Martin Kempton, Unspun sees host Matt Forde delivering a contemporary, comedic view of the week's political activity, expertly dismantling the week in Westminster. The set design has the presenter at its centre, flanked on all sides with a variety of set pieces and light boxes created using the LED Creative Alpha 60 RGB System.

The Alpha 60 and bespoke driver units have also been cleverly built directly into both the presenter's desk and around the perimeter of the large video screen to the rear of the set. Flexible and precise the highly controllable capabilities of

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Belgium - Creative lighting and visual design practice Painting with Light has added its own touches of magic and excitement for thrill-seekers enjoying Heidi The Ride, the stunning new 71 km/h wooden roller coaster due to open 1 April 2017 right at the heart of Heidiland, a new area at the Plopsaland De Panne theme park in Belgium.

Heidi The Ride - themed after the highly successful Heidi TV show produced by Studio 100, who own the park - is a new 6m euro investment built by Great Coasters International. She soars up to 22m high with a track of 618m, and her construction involved 56,846m of wood, 95,723 bolts and 181,198 nails with 784 mainstays holding everything secure.

"It was a really amazing honour to be invited to light this beautiful and intricate structure" explained Painting with Light's Luc Peumans, whose concept involved highlighting the detail of the st

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World - Responsible for the design on the Red Hot Chili Peppers recent word tour, The Getaway, is once again Scott Holthaus, long term LD, programmer and production designer for the band and a loyal user of MA Lighting consoles.

Holthaus comments, "We have now used grandMA for 20 years! As this is the most ambitious project I have come up with to date, I saw no reason to change from what has worked so well. Therefore, we voted again to use MA - in this case two grandMA2 full-size." Leif Dixon is working alongside Scott as programmer.

"It was my intention to create a giant video kinetic sculpture that includes, involves and encompasses the audience", continues Holthaus. "I feel this is the coolest travelling show out at this time - as do most who have seen it fly!" Premier Global Production provided the lighting equipment, TAIT the stage structure.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - SLX has provided the lighting equipment for award winning actor, Mark Rylance's, show Nice Fish at The Harold Pinter Theatre for Sonia Friedman Productions.

The show which opened to critical acclaim last year on Broadway opened on 25 November 2016 at The Harold Pinter Theatre, London. With lighting by USA based Japhy Weideman the show features a wide range of equipment including Martin Viper Performances, Martin Rush Pars, ETC Source Four Lustr2s, ETC Source Fours and Look Solution smoke machines.

The show is being run from an ETC Gio control desk. For the London transfer there were a number of changes from the New York show; a large amount of the rig was swapped from Scrollers to ETC Source Four Lustr2s and Martin Rush Par2s for reliability and the additional options that these fixtures bring.

The show was put into The Harold Pinter Theatre by production e

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USA - Some 15,000 fans of Mexican fashion icon, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, waited hours to gain entrance to the M.A.C. Cosmetics / Selena world premiere at the American Bank Centre in Corpus Christi, Texas, recently.

Handling the lighting for this event was Axis DeBruyn (of Axislights), who incorporated 48 of GLP's X4 Bar 10 battens in his design, supplied (along with the video and scenic effects) by PRG Las Vegas.

The concert arena was transformed into a Selena paradise with purple lights, purple rugs and purple Dillard's kiosks, to promote the new M.A.C. collection and T-shirts in honour of the Hispanic fashion designer (dubbed the 'Queen of Tejano Music').

One of the most celebrated Mexican-American entertainers of the late 20th century, Selena was fatally shot at age 23 in 1995 at the height of her career. Corpus Christ was her home town, and such is her icon

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Ireland - Electronic dance music lighting designer Conor Biddle specified an Avolites Sapphire Touch console to power his beat-perfect, immersive design for Winterparty '16, which returned to Dublin's 3Arena in October after a 12-year hiatus.

Inspired by the lighting at Las Vegas super-clubs, Biddle designed an intense, high-production show to celebrate the mammoth dance event's welcome return, which saw an epic line-up including Skream, Matador and Sven Vath.

"I specified the Avolites Sapphire Touch running the latest Titan version 10 because a dance event like this requires plenty of live busking," says Biddle. "The Sapphire Touch's dual screen and abundance of faders and features allowed me to create my ideal layout through using playbacks and macros. This ability is invaluable when putting together fast-paced designs that have to be adaptable."

Biddle worked alongs

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USA - Unlike virtually every state and county fair in the US, which take place in late summer, the Big E (or Eastern States Exposition, as it's also known), doesn't open until fall has begun its descent into winter. The timing is a throwback to the annual event's origins in 1916, when the six New England states joined forces to create an exposition that would showcase their agricultural capabilities near the end of the harvest season.

Agriculture and tradition still reign at the 17-day fair, as evidenced by its many livestock displays and historic replicas, as well as the classic New England cuisine like Vermont Cheddars and Massachusetts clam fritters that it treats over 1.3m visitors to every year.

However, even as it reaches the century mark, the Big E is also serving up sizzling contemporary entertainment with big name acts like George Thorogood and Grammy-nominated el

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USA - The Moody Blues wrapped another successful run with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. The British rock band boasts 18 platinum and gold albums with retail sales of more than 70m units, proving that the Moody Blues are one of the longest lasting artists of the famed 'British Invasion'.

Lighting designer Mick Thornton utilized a rig featuring Robe Pointes, Bandit's exclusive GRNLite Moving Washes and Pars, as well as 80 Clay Paky Mirage Panels controlled with a GrandMA1 console.

"I tend to design a show that is very video content orientated and work the colours with the lights and video to create a very Moody Blues feel," said Thornton. "I strongly believe in big focus positions and great timing."

Having worked with The Moody Blues for 14 years, Thornton is afforded creative licence over the look of the lighting, saying, "The set list very rarely changes

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South Africa - The main venue for the massive triannual Every Nation Conference organised by Every Nation Church - at the 5000 capacity Grand West's Grand Arena in Cape Town - provided an ideal opportunity for lighting designer Alan Muller of FX Unlimited to use Robe Spiiders for the first time.

It was in fact the first live show in SA to use Robe's brand new LED washbeam product launched last month.

The 12 Spiiders were part of a rig containing over 100 other Robe fixtures provided by technical suppliers C&S Audio who were working for event technical producers, Bad Weather Productions. Both companies are based in Cape Town.

Alan worked closely with technical production manager Andrew Bosman from Bad Weather who produced the original stage designs and the video content with his team and Pierre Smith, production director of Every Nation Church Somerset West.

The con

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Germany - Philips Lighting has announced entertainment technology supplier cast as the first full distribution partner of its entire entertainment lighting portfolio in Germany.

As official distributor, cast has integrated Philips Vari-Lite moving head luminaires into its stock. The company will also hold a wider range of Philips Selecon LED fixtures, Strand Lighting control consoles and Showline effects lights. This will facilitate faster delivery of units and spare parts within Germany.

General Manager for Philips Lighting's entertainment business Grant Bales-Smith said, "As part of our strategy of being a provider of connected lighting systems, we are establishing partnerships around the world that will offer a total entertainment lighting capability so our customers have a one-stop shop for all their lighting and project needs. We have decided to take this step with ca

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Trumped - Sir Elton John will not perform at Donald Trump's presidential inauguration, a spokeswoman for the singer has said. Anthony Scaramucci, a member of Trump's transition team, had told BBC HARDtalk that Sir Elton would perform in Washington DC in January. "Elton John is going to be doing our concert on the mall for the inauguration," Mr Scaramucci said. But this was "categorically denied" by Sir Elton's representative in London. "There is no truth in this at all," she told BBC News.

During the election campaign, Sir Elton had expressed support for Mr Trump's opponent, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Performing at a fundraising event for Mrs Clinton in Los Angeles in October, he was reported to have told the crowd, "We need a humanitarian in the White House, not a barbarian."

Mr Trump had used Sir Elton's songs Rocket Man and Tiny Dancer -

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Canada - CAST BlackTrax Ltd has appointed Andrew Gordon as their new director of business development to work exclusively on growing BlackTrax real-time motion tracking system, globally.

Andrew brings over a decade of sales, marketing management and operations experience working formerly as business development director at Freeman Audiovisual, Canada. From 2009 to 2014, he worked with CAST Group as the marketing & communication and business development manager across WYSIWYG, Vivien and BlackTrax early stage products.

Andrew is charged with expanding BlackTrax's business into new markets, increasing market share and presence in entertainment and production markets, instrumental to BlackTrax's success. He will also continue to maintain successful relationships with BlackTrax's established customer base and growing technical expert and support teams. For every BlackTrax proj

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USA - The Eos family of consoles just got bigger - by going smaller. After a successful preview at LDI, ETC has officially launched the Gio @5 console, which brings the professional-grade control of the Eos Ti and Gio consoles within reach of users with tighter spaces - and tighter budgets.

"With the Gio @5, we've given you a little bit of everything," says product manager Anne Valentino. This portable console packs all the control necessities into its narrow, 25.5-inch (641 mm) footprint, making external monitors and accessories optional. The desk includes an articulating, 17-inch, multi-touch LCD display, four encoders with haptic feedback, five definable and page-able motorised faders, a master fader pair and a retractable tray with backlit alpha-numeric keyboard.

The Gio @5 derives its name from the Eos command that sets a level at fifty percent, but don't be fooled by

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USA - On her current tour opening for superstar Chris Young, Cassadee Pope is supported by a Michael Stanley-designed lightshow that's as freewheeling and multi-faceted as her music, thanks in part to some very versatile Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures from Chauvet Professional, supplied by Bandit Lites. Stanley, who is also the programmer and lighting director for Chris Young, used 12 of the rotating Rogue fixtures in his floor package for Pope after consulting with the Bandit Lites team.

"Cassadee and her TM Don Muzquiz showed interest in going for a linear look," he recalled. "Mike Golden, Cassadee's account manager at Bandit, pitched the R1 FX-B to me, and Jake Tickle at Bandit demoed it. After we saw it, we jumped all over the idea. The linear shape of the fixture obviously could give us the orientation we wanted. But beyond that, we knew that all of the angles and effects we coul

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Sweden - The Cirkus venue in Stockholm has just installed a complete new ProLights lighting rig, supplied by A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd. (AC-ET), onto the Skandia stage. The multi-functional venue, which opened in October 2015, hosts a diverse range of events including concerts, theatre and conferences.

After having a positive experience when previously working with the AC-ET team, Palle Gustavsson, CEO of Cirkus, didn't think twice before approaching Johan Bertilsson, the distributor's regional sales representative for Sweden, to recommend fixtures for their new rig.

Palle commented, "Johan came in and demonstrated the ProLights fixtures, which I instantly felt were perfect for the job, fulfilling all our wants and needs. "I got my technical team to review them and they immediately fell in love with them."

With so many different performance genres at the Skan

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